Kasson Township is hoping to build what officials describe as a sorely needed additional station for the increasingly strained Cedar Area Fire and Rescue.

Township officials plan to ask voters in November for a $5.8 million, 25-year bond to build a new station just west of the intersection of M-72 and Maple City Road. This would augment CAFR’s current and only station in downtown Cedar.

Supervisor Greg Julian tells The Ticker a new station has been discussed for years as demand for services has increased, and he believes it’s high time to get it off the ground.

“This past July was our largest call volume month ever,” he says. “To meet those needs, we need a second station to spread the distance, add staff and make response times better.”

CAFR serves four townships in the heart of Leelanau – Kasson, Centerville, Cleveland and Solon – and the proposed new location is strategically located to help spread the load in a coverage area that (like seemingly everywhere else in Leelanau and the region at large) is on a growth trajectory with visitor traffic and other activity.

“With the increase in population, the increase in building, the increase in traffic, there has just become more and more of a need for increased service and decreased response times in Kasson Township, and specifically southern and western Kasson Township,” Township Clerk Dana Boomer tells The Ticker.

The new station proposal comes on the heels of advances already made to the department’s personnel, including transitioning from basic life support to full-time advanced life support services with trained paramedics. The new station would come with a relatively small increase in medical personnel, Julian says.

“Instead of having nine-full time members like we do right now, we’d have 12 full-time members, so that both stations could be manned 24/7,” Julian says.

Though the new station would serve all four townships, and those four townships would share the expense of running it, the cost to build it sits squarely with Kasson Township, Julian says. That’s due to the way the agreement between the townships is worded.

“The four townships will provide the operating costs for the building, but the township which the building is in is responsible for the cost of building that building,” he says.

Two open houses are scheduled for residents to learn more about the proposed station and the millage: Saturday, Sept. 6 at 10 a.m. and Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 6 p.m., both at the township hall.

“To me, it’s extremely important that we have these open houses, and I would invite citizens whether they’re supportive or not to come,” Julian says.

Julian is confident about the millage’s chance at success, especially considering what he’s heard from township residents. The board has already engaged an architect to make conceptual drawings of the proposed station in anticipation of the millage passing.

“People know that it's a needed service, that's the feedback we've gotten over the last 10 years,” he says. “People have wanted and asked for increased emergency services. That’s the direction we’re going for the constituents….but we’re presenting it to the citizens and it’s their decision to make on the November ballot.”

Having already worked with an architecht means the township will be ready to move quickly on construction plans should the millage be approved, Julian adds. 

"As soon as we get the funds secured through this bond, we would approach him for the construction drawings, as well as going out to bid on those drawings," he says. "The process would happen immediately."

Boomer asks anyone with questions about the fire station or the bond to email her at kassontwpclerk@gmail.com.